Forrest Butler Explains His Selection For The Team’s Second Spot

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There was an air of uncertainty around the Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/WPS/KTM truck at the 2019 Ironman Motocross. After months of racing, Justin Bogle and Benny Bloss knew that only one of them would get the highly sought-after second spot at the factory-supported team for 2020. Bogle, who was hired as a last-minute fill-in before the Supercross season, had reclaimed his rank in the sport with Supercross heat race wins and solid results in Main Events, all while dealing with the effects of Epstein-Barr. Bloss, meanwhile, had a long connection to the team that went back to his rookie year as a pro and steadily progressed with top-ten moto scores he returned to action four rounds into the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. To make matters more complicated, the two riders are very close friends that train together and it was Bloss that urged the team to hire Bogle for the fill-in ride. At the Indiana race, both riders expressed their desire to remain on the program for next year but still had lingering doubts that they’d be the one picked. 

It took until the first part of October for team owner Forrest Butler to make the decision and at the 2020 KTM team introduction last week, it was confirmed that Justin Bogle will fill the spot for next season. During a quick chat in the morning, Butler made it clear that he saw benefits in both riders and that he views both as potential winners should everything fall their way at the right time, but that Bogle’s Supercross experience and past win record was ultimately the determining factor. Just before the team announcement took place, we talked with Bulter about his pick, all that went into it, and what comes next for the team.

This was a big decision that was months in the making. Around the middle of the summer, we all started to think, “Okay, Forrest has two guys to choose from for one spot,” and now we know. When did you make the call?

Last week. Amongst a million rumors and things popping up in the silly season, when everyone wants to be the first person to know something, it really was midweek of last week. There were a lot of talks with key sponsors, it was 50-50 with both guys, Benny had been with us for a long time and Justin just for a year. It’s almost like are yin and yang, you know? They have their pros and cons, they train together, but that’s what it came down to. There was never any other riders (in the discussion). There are a number of other riders that have been up all year, there are still some now, but it was only ever going to be one of those two. Benny was hurt and missed all of Supercross, so we gave him time to get back, so when RedBud got there, he was making progress. At the end of the day, we needed time to go by. It’s our team but we treat all of our sponsors like partners, and it really wasn’t cut and dry, that’s what took so long. That’s the honest to God truth. We waited for Motocross des Nations to get over with and put our focus forward, and at the end of the day, we picked Justin.

You’re going with Justin after one year. You had no relationship before a deal that came together last Christmas. How have these last nine months been?

If I talk about one, I want to defend the other. Justin’s perks, he’s a past 250 champion and for his 450 career, which hasn’t been very long, he’s never been on the same team twice. He’s had some injuries, but who hasn’t at this point? This past year as a fill-in rider he came in with no excuses. He told us he was sick but was all-in for the ride. I had to go the whole year to see that it wasn’t a bunch of excuses at the beginning, “Hey I’m sick and I don’t feel good.” We had to see how it played out. If you look at the Supercross season as a whole, there were some ups and downs in the first half, but the second half was solid progression. He had three fourth places, one of them being a definite podium that was thrown away on the last lap of a mud race, a couple of heat race wins. And that’s really what it was. I think it comes down to Supercross controlling what we do, and although a lot of people don’t want to say that, it is what it is. We love motocross, too, but when it comes down to these decisions it comes down to this: We have a two-man factory team with Blake being the team captain, and if something happens to him, we are still expected to be in the top-five to top-eight. There’s pressure not just for the races, but for the series. With that, Justin holds more experience there because he has been on different teams and has shown to be consistent and stable. The potential is still there to win in my opinion, but we have to see what goes on. He has never had the chance to work with a factory team in back to back years, except at GEICO Honda when he won a 250 championship. He’s spent the year sick, but on the same bike with the same team in the same atmosphere. Now he can get ready properly and we expect big things.

How was it to break the news to Benny?

The next day, after I had to tell him, was even worse than the day I had to tell him. I was just depressed. He is someone that was brought to me, that I didn’t even know but took a chance on. Learning about him, being around him and his family was great. He’s so young and he’s bigger, so there were all of these different elements but at the end of the day, we had half an outdoor season and four full Supercross seasons, and unfortunately in two of those Supercross seasons, he was hurt. The year before last, that was his true rookie season and he won the Rookie of the Year. I can’t tell you what this past year could have been like, because it’s all could of, would of, should of like a lot of guys are when that happens. Unfortunately, you look at it like, “We’re going into year five that Benny’s been on the bike and this other person only had one year on the bike and did get better Supercross finishes.” Outdoors, I tip the hat to Benny because I feel that he has done better outdoors and has more potential. But that doesn’t mean Justin doesn’t have it outdoors, because he has won and Benny hasn’t. With both of them, there are pros and cons. It really did come down to two weeks ago, and even when we did it then, it was private.

There was some talk of hopes to go with three riders. Did that ever get close to happening?

It’s the beginning of October, so you never know what could happen between now and Anaheim. Right now our plan and KTM’s plan is to go forward with both teams is to go with two marquee 450 riders, and that’s going to be what it is. Blake is still coming back from his issues and the same with Justin. It came out at the end of the summer that he had been riding the whole year sick, it just started to show at the end. He didn’t even need to be racing a motorcycle in the last two weeks of the summer, but he did to show how bad he wanted the ride. He was going to ride himself in the Alpinestars rig at the end of the season if that’s what it took, and that’s what happened at Budds Creek.

With that said and Monster Cup coming up, Benny took some time off to get married, came off of the outdoors healthy, and had three solid weeks to get ready for Monster Cup. That’s the interesting part. Because next weekend Benny will race for us in what’s to be his last official race. If things could change in the future, I don’t know. I still believe in the kid, I think he’s fast in Supercross, and a lot of things can happen at the Monster Cup. That’s the way he and we are going about it, nothing has changed since he got back from his wedding a week and a half ago. It’s wide open to get him ready and see if he can get on the box at the Monster Cup. Maybe that’ll show everyone what he could be in Supercross. And I don’t know what happens after then.

Around Millville, I talked to Blake and he told me that sometimes he felt flat, that it wasn’t there. After that, it became clear what was going on and he sat out the rest of the summer. What is the latest on him and what is the plan?

It has been a long time coming. He has a food allergy problem, but it’s more complex than that. They can’t put a stamp on the first day that he was allergic to something, but it’s something he never knew he had problems with. He’s always had sinus problems and they progressively got worse with age. He has the farm in Florida, he comes to California, so he was always pulled in different directions. What we figured out through a number of doctors was that it was progressive throughout the whole season. When we finished Supercross off, he was starting to feel flat. Nothing had really changed off of the bike, there were always adjustments, so it wasn’t like he was overdoing it in any way. With the way we were adjusting he should have been healing up but instead, it got worse. When we finally got to the right types of doctors, it was discovered after testing that he had severe allergies and had to break it down. He’s allergic to 127 of your basic foods, from peanut to grapes to meats, so he got worn down. He ended up getting Parvo, which is something that dogs get, and it happened from beating down his immune system so much. We had to take a look at the last three years, back to 2017 when he had a great summer, and he can say he doesn’t feel like he did the year before. From then it had been downward progression. Once we got those panels of the foods he’s allergic to and looked back those three years from 2017 to 2018 to 2019, when we got more strict with his training program and diet, he was eating 75-percent of the things he’s allergic to. He was eating extremely healthy, the same as any top pro guy diet, but his body wasn’t taking it. So basically his body took a whole year of being beaten into the ground and now it’s about recovery. He’s been on his new diet for a month now, but it takes some time for things to come around after he got rid of the Parvo and the basic antibiotic runs. We took it easy and looked at it like he broke his wrist. Right now it’s going pretty good and we should start his boot camp at the beginning of November, which is what we had planned ongoing. When he won at Phoenix it showed everyone where he was, but he had also started training in early October. We made our adjustments and he’s made his. Medically, it came down to a massive food allergy with a lot of different elements. It is what it is. You can’t say that on the day he turned 25 years old, he became allergic to something. There’s no telling how long he’d been like this.

You have two guys that on a night when everything goes the right way, they can be in the mix for a win or on the podium. How is it for you to see that, but also realize that you can’t freak out on a Saturday night if they don’t win?

Those expectations don’t change from last year. Once you are on the podium a lot and battle for wins, that’s what you expect to do. This year we fully expect it and with Justin healthy, we want to put two bikes on the podium. That’s the goal.